Inspired for DIY.

I have some very talented friends you know. My friend Tori (we met back in our studying days)  has an incredibly awesome blog Voyages of the Creative Variety and posted this amazing DIY Christmas ornaments on there recently. I absolutely love modern Christmas trees & decorations and I think this definitely takes the cake for most creative too. Next year I will plan our tree in advance and make sure to make a few decorations of my own! You can check out her tutorial here.

Only3 more days till Christmas! x

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Those Christmas Lights.

Okay, seriously, I love Christmas! Everything about it!

Sunday night we had a lovely dinner with the Thomas' and decided to head out to the Temple Lights later on in the evening. I know people get over doing the same thing every year, or seeing the exact same decorations as previous years, but the joy that hits you when those lights turn on is too overwhelming to resist! I got a bit too excited when the lights came on (you can go see the outtakes on my facebook page hah!) that I must have scared some people behind me. Oh well, this only happens once a year, better make the most of the season!

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We ♥ Holidays.

This past weekend, Neil and I, together with our family headed over to the beach for the weekend. And how glorious it was to get away for a mini-holiday before the busiest week in retail will hit this week. Eventhough the weather was not very pleasant, we still managed to head out to the Matakana Markets on Saturday morning and experience the smells, tastes and atmosphere of this beautiful area. They had such a great selection of cheeses, spices, wines, breads and salamis, it was hard to not be tempted! Beautiful little boutique stores were also found around every corner, and my mouth was drooling when we came upon a darling little bookstore which I managed to spend a lot of time in, letting my fingers trace the spines of nearly every book.



And this is not even to mention the Brookview Tea House we went past on our way back to the car. Now THIS was truelly beautiful and totally true to it's name! It was actually a little house that had tables and teacups in every room and left you free to choose a little spot to gather in, with an amazing selection of different teas available for purchase as well.

Like I mentioned, the weather wasn't the greatest, but at least we managed to have a stroll down the beach on the first day and take some snaps. If only it was warm enough to swim!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend as well! x

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Celebrating Christmas: The Gingerbread House.

With only 12 days left to go till Christmas (WOW!) we are well and truelly getting into the festive spirit this year! Earlier this year, Amanda and I decided this will be the first year we build and decorate Gingerbread Houses together. So on Sunday we started out on the task to bake and build our little houses from scratch. And just look at the finished product! A bit rough around the edges, but it just screams out FUN!

For any of you that are keen to build your own houses from scratch, here are a few tips I would leave you with from our experience:

1. Read the recipe a few days before you start! You may need to leave your dough in the fridge for a few hours, so plan ahead.
2. When you roll out your dough to be cut into shapes, don't roll it out too thick!
3. When you roll out your dough to be cut into shapes, don't roll it out too thin! Hah, it's a bit of a guessing game really - too thick takes ages to bake, too thin won't support your house and may crack.
4. After baking your separate pieces to build the house with, make sure it cools down completely before you start putting it together - the icing may melt, and your pieces may still be too soft (the colder they are, the harder and more stable they become).
5. The more lollies, jellies, candy canes and sweet treats you have the better!
6. Research some houses for decoration ideas - you can get pretty stumped if you don't have a bit of an idea of what you would like it to look like.
7. Decorate your walls, roof, door etc BEFORE you assemble - it is much easier to decorate while pieces are lying flat.
8. Have a friend help you assemble - the more hands you have to hold up walls, the safer and studier your house will be.
9. Use a quick cooling, hard icing to help assemble pieces.
10. Have cans ready to put on either side of the walls to help support structure until icing is hard.
11. Make sure you have enough patience! We didn't believe the recipe when it said "Alow up to 3 days to complete house", but really, if you are building from scratch you probably want to do that!


The icing recipe we used was perfect! So for those who would like to try, would recommend this icing:

2x egg whites
2 2/3 cups icing sugar
Whisk egg whites until light and fluffy, and slowly start adding icing sugar until icing becomes thicker and stiff.

Fun! Alright, well that's a new Christmas tradition we have started! Oh how I love Christmas!

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Auckland Art & Craft Fair.

A range of pretties found at the Foxes stall.

Too many gorgeous flower crowns to choose from over at Wolf Cub.

Hunter Gatherer displaying their collection of jewellery, cards and more.

Walking home with my favourite Bird In a Bunny Suit print.

What an entertaining weekend this has been! A group of us made our way along to the Auckland Art & Craft Fair on Saturday, held at the Aotea Centre and what a treat it was! As my first time at the fair, I wasn't sure what to expect, but was definitely impressed by the turn out! I found it to be such a unique and lovely event to display so many people's creativity and I must say, left feeling rather inspired myself. It was fantastic to see the talent that is hidden all over New Zealand, displayed for showcase at this event. Great exposure for smaller, independant businesses and make a way into the market. All in all, I absolutely loved it and will be looking forward to the next fair!

Jess (from Foxes) and Kylie did such a fantastic job at organising this event, so big ups for all the hard work and effort put into this! We are grateful for the work you have done so we could attend such an awesome event :)

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Flower Crown Love.

Flower Crown c/o Neverland Collective.

This is by far going to be my most worn item this Summer! I am absolutely and utterly in love with this little beauty from Neverland Collective (thanks Claire!). And with Christmas and it's festivities on the way, I will have plenty of opportunities to wear it. Sometimes I wish this Christmas Season would be longer, there's just so much to fit in - starting this weekend it will be non-stop partying, with Christmas parties, birthdays and the Auckland Craft Fair. Loving every moment!

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Start of Summer.

This weekend I had the pleasure of joining in on a true Garden Party hosted for all the ladies in our church. It was such a lovely event that marked the end of the year for the women's events, as well as the start of Summer. And as a part of the graphic design work I do, I have the honour of designing signage, cards and advertising for such special events and work alongside some incredibly creative people - watch this space, our awesome events coordinator will be starting up a blog very soon, you will be swooning over the events she's put together!! And just look how it all came together!

Love!

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